Ricky Gervais - Brilliant Marketing or Lies?

[bionicgenius]

Ok, so that was a bad title. Is there a difference really?

I fell onto thier show about 1/2 way through the series of 12. They started talking about the Guinness World Records for podcast downloads. I guess I believed it then, but still haven't been able to find concrete truth to that claim.

I may have missed the bus on this discussion, but did they indeed break a record?

To follow-up and announce that "you'll need to start paying" was the home run in the marketing game.

From The Guardian: The Ricky Gervais Show will be included in the 2007 edition of the Guinness World Records' book - as long as no other podcast tops it before it is published in the autumn

Maybe they should get a Guinness for Best Podcast Ploy!

[Yotto]

I don't think it's shite per se. But it is extremely stupid for the long term. People will either:

A) Go without (99% of his current listeners)
or
B) Pay a bit, realize they could better spend their money elsewhere, and go without (99% of the people who didn't drop in step A)
or
C) Actually continue forever (His mom)

[bionicgenius]

I Almost signed-up for an Audible account, just for real books on tape, but sheesh! they want lots of money up in there.

All of us free-casters rule; at-least for now.

[podcastrant.com]

Gervais seems to be doing well. He topped the Itunes store download charts (for pay) in Canada and the UK when his pay podcast debuted.

[bionicgenius]

People talk about iTunes charts. Where are they? I keep rating shows {just my own, of-course}, but have never seen results.

Thanks

[podcastrant.com]

I'm talking about when you go to the music store and see the top downloads. He topped those charts in Canada and the UK. So he beat out every song/audiobook download essentially.

That's moving some numbers.

[bionicgenius]

Ah yes. Those are some numbers then. They did a smart thing by claiming downloads stats...

Feedburner stats are confusing, and you cannot tell 'how many actual downloads'. I just look at my bandwidth and calculate -- dividing three hosts + wives + parents = just about accurate! :shock:

[podcastrant.com]

hehe... yeah you might want to try Podalyzer. It's free but does require some server install work on your part. Their numbers do seem to give more detailed info. And when the PDN releases this month (?) they are supposed to have the stat question licked for their members. So for now I'd try Podalyzer.

here's the linky: http://www.hexten.net/podalyzer/

here's a screenshot of their stats: http://singletrackworld.com/stats/

If you have any questions contact Andy. He's a pretty helpful guy.

[bionicgenius]

I like that! I'm sure there's more info elsewhere on P.ally, but since you're here...

Do you need to create yet another feed? Looks like since badwidth is mentioned, it hooks onto the server. Oh - you said that. Teehee

I'll check it out. Thanks againster.

[AndyArmstrong]

If you have any questions contact Andy. He's a pretty helpful guy.

Thanks :)

I'm very keen to make podalyzer produce all the reports it resonably can that people are interested in - so please do give me feedback.

[kinkysex]

I'm very keen to make podalyzer produce all the reports it resonably can that people are interested in - so please do give me feedback.
I'm installing your product today.

Wish me luck. 8)

[bionicgenius]

Forums are cool like that! Nice to meet you Andy.

[Soccer Shout]

Can you get a perl distribution that runs under WinXP?

And...are the apache log files you get from Libsyn in the 'common format'?

[AndyArmstrong]

ActiveState (http://www.activestate.com/) do the standard Perl distribution for WinXP.

The Libsyn log files are fairly normal I think - someone sent me some to try and I don't recall any problems - give me a shout if you get that far and get stuck :)

[dansus72]

i hear that ricky got 250k per weekly episode, im told that the DSC gets 500k per day.... not sure about the world record thing, just more bullshit from king dork ricky.

[podcastrant.com]

Leo Laporte talked about this on a TWIT a few weeks ago. He said that he had heard that Ricky was only doing 250K as well, but he talked to someone who knew and that he was waaaayyyy off.

So who knows.

[radioclash]

I voted Don't Care since the show was terrible.

And most downloaded podcast is bollocks - there's no way anyone in the world can know that figure for certain as there isn't a RADAR / ABC style organisation centrally compiling server logs for comparison (or a statistical sample).

I could quite believe other podcasts pull in far more...

I've heard the Audible podcasts are **** quality, and he's recycling his content from his old XFM shows (which are available somewhere on torrent I believe).

P.S. I've heard the real figure and it's not far off 250k a week. But then again without central vetting I could say my podcast has 500k listeners and who could prove otherwise? It's all a matter of trust...and lies.

[bionicgenius]

Agreed on not caring. I thought two shows were funny, but then I lost interest. There's no way that they were the nost downloaded show - even in a month. Tech shows are drawing the most traffic, and Leo has/will take the cake on tech shows, unless Woz returns with more lasers. :)